Why do you invest your time & efforts in association work?

What inspires me is to build community and bring ideas and causes together to create value and move organizations forward. I invest time here because this work is critical to ensure thriving industry communities as well as members’ careers/ lives within these communities. As a hub of association resources, we love the challenge of bringing the pieces together in collaboration with association volunteers.

What are the top three success factors of impactful association work?

1. Connections: Building strong relationships with volunteers who are critical and central to associations and this is what we truly enjoy.
2. Facilitation: We clear the path to enable their ideas and we work alongside them to bring best practices from within the association community, and from outside the community.
3. Diversity: We are proud to hire talent who bring diversity of thought that can be applied in unique ways to help achieve association goals.

What should we #ChooseToChallenge when it comes to association work?

Let us #ChooseToChallenge how we work with and support our associations regarding diversity and inclusion. Financial sectors tend to have fewer female leaders. For industries like this, we need to make it a priority to challenge the status quo.

We #ChooseToChallenge by working with our client associations who may not see the lack of diversity in their associations. We #ChooseToChallenge how we prepare programming to ensure that diverse viewpoints are reflected in things like speaker line ups, so that associations are meeting diversity and inclusion goals.

How is the association sector dealing with diversity and inclusion? Has it changed?

Start by examining your vision, mission, and values: are diversity, equity, and inclusion part of this equation? If the association is to maintain its relevancy into the future, this will be a key piece.

Next, ensure that the conversation is showing up in all levels of the association, and that most importantly, it starts at the top. Diverse contributions from different perspectives lead to better decision making and unique problem-solving opportunities for associations.